


The Nature of Monsters

by FujurPreux



Category: Hellsing, Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-17
Updated: 2010-04-17
Packaged: 2017-10-09 00:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujurPreux/pseuds/FujurPreux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alucard muses on the nature of monsters and shows his soft spot for female police officers yet again. Happens during the first season of Torchwood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Nature of Monsters

"The Hellsing Organization," Jack began, eyes fixed on the road, "has been around for nearly as long as the Torchwood Institute. They specialize in one thing and they're good, they're really good at what they do."

"An that is...?" Gwen asked.

"Vampires." Ianto gave Gwen a book: Bram Stoker's Dracula. "Ever read it? It may be helpful."

"You're joking." Even after all she'd seen, it still look quite unlikely.

"We're not." Jack said. "This is the real deal. When they started, they tamed down a very strong vampire and made them work for them." He shrugged. "Don't ask me how nor why, I've no clue, but so far he's been faithful to them. Maybe he's just waiting for a perfect opportunity to take his revenge, even though the current leader doesn't seem to think so."

Gwen looked at her co-workers. "I wasn't expecting vampires to actually exist, you know? Even after all of this. What are they? Aliens? People infected with a virus?"

Toshiko shrugged. "Well, there are several kinds of hematophagous beings all over the universe, but we're not sure about this particular breed, since we're not exactly allowed to play in their sandbox and we've never been able to obtain samples to analyse."

"Why are we going there, then?" Gwen asked.

"It's our side of the field," Jack said pulling over the SUV in a dark alley. "We're not just going to let them steal all of our fun."

"So it's about territory," Gwen muttered as she went down from the vehicle.

"Pretty much," Ianto said right behind her.

"I'll go down to the basement," Jack said when they got to the building's back door. "Toshiko and Owen, check the ground floor, Gwen and Ianto, go to the first floor. Regardless of the nature of our target, his shouldn't be too different from our other assignments."

"Just remember, boys and girls," Owen said, "our current goal is to defeat the vampire not only before Hellsing but before it defeats us. Keep your eyes and ears open, your mouth shut, your limbs attached to your bodies and stick with your partner." He cocked his gun. "Other than that, please enjoy yourselves."

~*~

About fifteen minutes later, Gwen had managed not only to split up from Ianto, but also to get lost in one of the building's many corridors. On the plus side, she thought, she still had all of her limbs.

Soon enough, she heard very loud noises coming from a nearby room. She hurried there trying to ready herself to whatever it was that she might find.

~*~

 

The bloody remains of a corpse where at the feet of the smiling stranger. The tip of his teeth were sharp and blood ran down his chin, dripping down over the corpse, along with drops that fell from the gloved hands.

Gwen had seen many gruesome things in her time in the police, and ever more --and weirder-- ones since she'd joined Torchwood, yet she couldn't help but feeling a shiver all the way down her spine as she noticed the man's --it looked like a man-- smile was like the one you see on a skull: pointless and all devoid of amusement; it exists just because no lips are covering the teeth.

Long ago, she would've taken out her pistol to point at him as she ordered to him to lie down on the floor and remain still until backup arrived, but now, after Torchwood, she knew better. Perhaps, if the victim had been still alive, she would've done it nevertheless, but there was no way that mass of limps could still be breathing. That's right, she thought, keep telling yourself that's not a someone anymore, distance yourself emotionally and wait for reinforcements; Ianto should be very close right now.

Thus, she kept quiet. Until the moment the man turned his head towards her and stared as if he knew she was there. Gwen covered her mouth with her hand to muffle a gasp. There was no way he could see her behind those shelves if he was human, which, to be fair, she'd been doubting since the beginning.

He licked his lips slowly, with a blood-red tongue. She took a small step backwards. To her ears it sounded like a stampede if only because that was the only sound heard in the room since she'd gotten in.

A full minute passed before he finally spoke. "I know you're there: I can smell your fear." He didn't say it, but his tone made it clear that it pleased him. "Come out, I won't touch you."

A part of her brain wanted to remain where she was, hidden, even though she knew it'd be better to obey: if he could smell her, if he was capable of tearing apart a creature with the complexion of a human being with nothing else but his hands and mouth, there was no way she could take him by herself alone. Gwen allowed herself a last shudder and came out, holding her chin up, trying to keep her hands away --and yet close-- to her pistol, forcing herself to look at the man's eyes, which shone gold and coldly in the dim room.

He put on a pair of shades. "You're with Torchwood."

"Yes. And you're with Hellsing," she said, hoping she was right.

"I am Alucard," he said as he adjusted a hat on his head, a hat she didn't remember having seen before. "And yes, I'm with the Hellsing Organization." He turned around. "This one--" he pointed at the mess on the floor "--was ours. You have no business here. On the bright side, you won't even have to clean up the mess."

"This is our side of the field," Gwen said repeating Jack's words.

"Is it, now?" Alucard widened his mocking smile. "Well, this is a sort of ball you're not used to handle."

She took a quick glance at the body on the floor. "I'm pretty sure we could've handle a vampire."

"Oh? And here I was quite sure this was the first time you saw one." He sneered. "Or, better said, two."

In most other circumstances, Gwen's reaction to a smile like that one would've been to draw her gun and point it at the vampire, but then she thought that would only give him an excuse to attack her, so she didn't move her hand from where it was.

Alucard's face softened a little. "So, you have a brain. Good. Listen, Torchwood: it doesn't matter what Harkness says, it's not about territory, it's about proficiency and expertise. You get to deal with all the little things that come out from that rift of yours, leave the vampires to us."

"But we all still working towards the same end, isn't it?"

He tilted his head a bit. "Are we? Let's consider our situations: I am a monster workng for a human being. You are a human being working for a monster. I honestly can't see us being after the same objectives."

She blinked. "A monster?"

"Being unable to die is against nature and what is against nature is called a monster. It's as simple as that."

That sounded like a logical statement, but still didn't feel right to Gwen's ears. "He's not a monster. He can't be. He'd never..."

"He'd never do something like this?" Alucard offered pointing at the mess of blood and guts on the floor.

She nodded.

"You are so certain. Well, only time will tell." He touched the brim of his hat. "Keep working for him as long as you can and see it all with your own eyes. I've found your naivety quite endearing, so I'll take care of sir Integral's ire, so there won't be any retaliation against you, Torchwood." With that, Alucard slid backwards towards the wall behind him and went through it.

After a second, Gwen hurried there to look for a hidden door or a window, but she found nothing.

~*~

The first thing Gwen did when she saw Jack was to give him a hug. She didn't tell him exactly why and he didn't complain, but he most certainly thought it was because what she'd seen in the room might've been a little too much for just about anyone. "Alucard is wrong," she told to herself. "Jack might be not normal, but he's not a monster either."

At the end, who was to say what was and what wasn't human? So Jack couldn't die, big deal. Everything else seemed pretty much in place, Gwen thought when she heard him complain he would't get to talk to sir Integral on the phone to hear her scolding them. "She doesn't take calls," he said as the whole team rolled eyes.

By then, Gwen'd already decided that yes, she'd keep working for him for yes, to 'see it all with her own eyes', but all the good the Torchwood team could bring under the command of their very own and very odd leader. Yes, only time would tell, but it would tell things that would prove Alucard wrong on his idea about the nature of monsters.

**Author's Note:**

> Phew. This went through at least a dozen rewrites, but I finally found a structure that made sense and didn't make me want to climb up the wall.  
> Originally, I wanted to show the scene of Integral and Jack talking, with Jack all but smitten and Integral going, "GTFO my lawn, Harkness!" but that urge was sort of [taken care of already](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/mansion_rpg/104674.html?thread=80968162#t80968162). :3


End file.
